G20 leaders pose for the family picture during the G20 summit in Saint Petersburg on September 6, 2013 (AFP Photo) / AFP

Russia did not attempt to snoop on the world leaders at the G20 summit, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has said. The media reports earlier claimed that Russia gave foreign delegates USB sticks and chargers capable of stealing data.

“We do not know, what sources this information may have come
from, but clearly it is nothing else but an attempt to divert
attention from objective problems, which dominate the agenda
between the European capitals and Washington, to some ephemeral,
non-existent ones,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told
RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera,
published a report claiming that at the September G20 summit in
St. Petersburg Russia presented the foreign delegations with USB
flash drives and mobile phone chargers capable of “undercover
detection of computer data and mobile phones.”

The unnamed “diplomatic sources” quoted by the daily said
the EU President, Herman Van Rompuy, was surprised by the gift
and decided to check the gadgets upon his return to Brussels.
German intelligence services were asked to conduct some tests,
the media claimed, saying that preliminary results showed
“positive” that the gifts could be used to snatch data
from devices, much like Trojan horse malware.

The Italian media then claimed a memorandum has already been sent
to G20 members, urging diplomats to inspect the gadgets and
“take every possible precaution in case these items have been
used.” Should the tests by individual member states prove the
gifts were a trap, a formal protest with demands for
clarification will be launched, the daily added.

A spokesperson for the European Commission (EC), Frederic
Vincent, has refused to comment on the issue, saying that his
colleagues have seen the media reports and are checking their
credibility. Van Rompuy’s office also said it would not comment
on the allegations.

While some sources of the Italian daily also suggested the whole
USB stick spying story may turn out to be “a trap to embarrass
the Russians,” other diplomatic sources quoted by the
Telegraph were “baffled” by the allegations. It would have
been a “schoolboy error” to insert such gadgets into
computers with sensitive information – something next to
impossible for a security-trained diplomat, the sources stressed.

“We’ve not found any evidence of a problem,” the British
media quoted the EC spokesman as saying.
The Italian media broke the alleged spying story in the wake of
the NSA leaks scandal, recently reheated with reports that the
American agency has spied on European leaders and intercepted
tens of millions of calls by European citizens for
“years.”

The NSA’s alleged intelligence gathering has caused a stir in
relations between the EU and the US, with top politicians
demanding explanations from Washington, as well as proposing to
take measures against the indiscriminate surveillance.